Anime recommendations

[ramza]

monster is definitely over! The manga has 18 vols while the anime has more than 70 episodes.

 

Personnally, when I have to choose between manga and anime, I usually go for the former since animes are usually bad adaptations of the manga's story.

But exceptionnally, the Monster anime is very good.

[Xard]

IMO it depends.

 

First Manga, then Anime = Manga is better

First Anime, then Manga = Anime is better

 

Of course there is expections.

 

Well then, I might consider Monster. I'm just so bored of these forever running shows like Naruto... 70 episodes is quite much how many episodes I can stand for one serie, though there is expections.

 

I like nice and tidy 26 episodes long series.

[mkreku]

If Britney Spears is anim

[Lare Kikkeli]

for manga lone wolf and cub and akira.

 

for anime FLCL and cowboy bebop.

[Krookie]

lol anime

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Akira

Grave of the Fireflies

Memories

Howl's Moving Castle

[ramza]

Grave of the Fireflies is a HORRIBLE movie. It almost made me cry. It was so sad... people don't deserve to watch so sad movies...

[Sionn]

Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun,BLEACH ftw ,Psycomm

Edited November 13, 2006 by Sionn

[Pidesco]

Grave of the Fireflies is a HORRIBLE movie. It almost made me cry. It was so sad... people don't deserve to watch so sad movies...

 

 

For a second there, I though I was going to have to smack you. ^_^

[Purgatorio]

What's FLCL?

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Furikuri.

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Fully Cooly =

Furikuri Japanese.

Thanks.

 

Hellsing.

NGE. Of course.

[Atreides]

Yeah Full Metal Alchemist is srsly good.

[Pop]

See, I'm not really all that big on anime, I kind of was in high school, but I've pretty much given up on the medium for the most part. I still have plenty of otaku friends who won't stop extolling the virtues of anime, but I don't get it. I've gotten tired of the heavy symbolism. And even the "classics" I have a hard time liking.

 

Akira was a big, overripe, dark-for-dark's sake cluster**** in the grand Todd McFarlane tradition. I never took Spawn seriously, therefore I never took Akira seriously. NGE seemed good when I saw it, but the more I think about it, the more ridiculous and self-aggrandizing it seems. Especially when I saw it with people who took pains to point out every allegory and every crucifix image they put in to give it meaning

 

The degree to which I enjoy an anime seems to be correlative to the degree in which the plot resembles greek tragedy, and how much wretched excess is packed in (ie, how many people explode) On the other hand, cutesy anime never interested me, but I can live with it, generally.

 

Bebop was good, I liked it. I liked Trigun too, even though (perhaps because) it's usually derided by anime purists I encounter. The Vash-as-Christ allegory was pretty light, and the peripheral characters were likable.

 

I just recently watched this series called Elfin Lied, which I hated. It's an unholy monster crudely animated from the corpses of NGE, Akira and (uh) Steel Angel Kurumi. Basically, it's the plot of that FEAR FPS, but instead of the little girl being raised in a lab, she's living with this family of orphans and outcasts, and she goes nuts one day and kills a large number of the main characters and the show morphs from being a family dramedy into a fate-of-the-world-is-at-stake monster series. That might sound funny to some, but it takes itself dead seriously, as high drama.

 

That pretty much killed anime for me.

 

But still, I can't help but love Miyazaki. If only all anime was as good as he is. Hell, I know people who loathe anime with a burning passion who love Miyazaki. Some even exclude him from "anime" so they can love him I personally regard Princess Mononoke as one of the best films I've ever seen. It's perfect fable.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Blood the last Vampire...

[Zoma]

Pop, you tried watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes yet? I think this series is quite fitting for you if you want to break off from the current anime 'standards'.

 

I'm sad that no one in this thread watched this series before . It is one of the classics that can be viewed as a well-done fictional history as its own. Character designs and hand drawn animation is done in great detail compared to today's digital standards in anime.

 

Episode 1 of the series in youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePBwXWYVE8

 

Other recommended series:

 

Title: The Irresponsible Captain Tylor

Genre: Comedy, Space Opera, Drama

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irresponsible_Captain_Tylor

 

Title: Turn A Gundam, Gundam: War in the Pocket

Genre: War, Drama

 

 

Title: Berserk (Manga's better in comparison)

Genre: Fantasy, Medieval

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk_%28manga%29

[Calax]

Azumanga Dioh.

 

Good... funny as hell if you can get the humor.

 

As to NGE? it falls apart half way though (understandable given the maker had a freaking Mental breakdown at that point.)

[Blarghagh]

You can say a lot of things about Akira but it's one of the most well-animated things ever. Most classic Disney features wish they had animation this good.

[Xard]

lol anime

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O RLY?

 

Azumanga Dioh.

 

Good... funny as hell if you can get the humor.

 

As to NGE? it falls apart half way though (understandable given the maker had a freaking Mental breakdown at that point.)

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I believe that I'm part of minority that actually likes last two episodes. and other same kind of thing:I like Shinji. In general I hate emo characters but this is not case with him.

 

Of course, without End of Evangelion I would too be seriously pissed. Actually, I like how series is "build" (well, it lived through whole production so there wasn't actually any plan buy you know it anyway...). There's this mecha-stuff, cool fights, intriguing characters (especially Rei Ayanami) and interesting, seemingly very scifistic plot (fight back teh aliens!) with monsters. Then things starts to get "weird" (as Anno's situation got worse and worse again. Glad he didn't kill himself) and psychological. And plot thickens.

 

Episode 19 is culmination point of series IMO, then plot starts to get much darker (even though there was hints for that before) and... crazier. Especially I like how NGE made subconscious look like. Quick, nearly (sometimes not just nearly) unreadable flashing texts, white strings on black etc. Cool, and it works.

 

Finale aka End of Evangelion is awesome. Asuka's fight, JSDF's assault, postmodernism of Human Instrumentality Project and creepy ending. Me likes, me likes a lot. Heck, one of my favorite films ever.

 

Of course it is hard to think NGE just as mere anime when you remember what its purpose and meaning was for Anno.

 

Besides, I started to ramble about EVA again, geez. Kinda reminds me of my longest "why eva rocks" confestion. It was over 10 pages long, duh.

 

Hey, no love for old Ginga Nagareboshi? I've watched it uncensored from DVD, t rocked a lot. How's this new Weed thingy? Manga available for a long, long time, but I guess anime is pretty new one.

 

Also, anyone has seen Gedo Senki yet? I've heard its not good as Miyazaki the older's films, but pretty good still.

 

edit: Watching that Legend of the Galactic Heroes right now. Not my style of anime but its ok *shrugs*

Edited November 13, 2006 by Xard

[ramza]

3 remarks to all the above posts:

 

1) Akira the movie utterly sucks. It is only a (very) short edition of what happens in the manga. The manga's story is more coherent since no scenes have been cut, and has more depth.

 

2) NGE is a very controversed series. By looking at the characters' wild personnalities and complicated problems, you can tell the guy who made it is a weirdo (I am not surprised to learn that he had a mental breakdown, since all his characters are mentally depressed in one way or another). The story is good though. It has depth and closely examines the psychological and philosophcal aspects of human relations. I am also one of the few who liked the 2 last episodes. However, I wish End of Evangelion was never made. It just doesn't make any sense, most of the characters "die" in it and just doesn't offer a more satisfying ending that episode 26 offered. It just made the story more absurd. And I dont like how they implemented PC special effects in it (NGE was one of the last animes to be hand-drawn).

 

3) Elfen lied is ... very disturbing... but not bad. Most people criticize the excessive bloodshed in it, and I agree with them even though I kinda got used to it. While most of my friends almost puked when they were watching it, I was laughing like crazy because it was way too absurd to seem realistic. It just didn't convince me. The series had good ideas and interesting characters but the guy who made it (a psycho, I tell you) prefered to focus on unnecessary violence. The reasons the main character turned bad are not convinving enough and I still don't understand how everyone is mean to her (there are good people too in this world). They also added a small romance to spice things a little. meh...

[kirottu]

Finale aka End of Evangelion is awesome.

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I will never understand why the hell they had shiji

[Atreides]

Blood the last Vampire...

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I really liked the Blood+ 50 ep series. The level of animation and voice acting was phenomenal.

 

Plus just watch anime for fun. There's no point overanalysing if it just reduces your enjoyment.

[Lare Kikkeli]

akira the movie was garbage. the manga on the other hand is a classic which everyone should read.

[Xard]

It just doesn't make any sense, most of the characters "die" in it and just doesn't offer a more satisfying ending that episode 26 offered. It just made the story more absurd. And I dont like how they implemented PC special effects in it (NGE was one of the last animes to be hand-drawn).

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Heh, I fully understood movie after 3. time I watched it.

 

Made story more absurd? How? Episodes 25/26= End of Evangelion. Episode 25/26 are what happens inside people's minds in EoE, what we see in EoE is what happens in "real world."

Additionally, episode 25 was originally planned to take place in the physical world; but it was changed due to time and budget restraints. The movie is divided into two parts, Episode 25': Air, and Episode 26': まごころを、君に (Magokoro o, kimi ni, "My Purest Heart for You").

 

It is argued in fanbases when during EoE happens that Episode 26's "congratz" ending scene. Popular guesses are A: when Instrumentality is triggered B: When Shinji denies it, thus letting anyone being individual beings. I'm "B man" personally

 

But yeah, it gets really confusing time to times. But plot is not that hard. . Actually whole serie until that finale is just big, big prologue for EoE (and Instrumentality and Shinji's "healing" or whatever you want to call it). All the time it was about Instrumentality. Either Angels or Humans (aka evolution, since actually they are same thing). Either SEELE's or Gendo's version (which neither happened ). Meh, if I would even try to give "perfect" answer (there never will be with Eva) it would be enormously big. And useless.

 

This is quick (and rather non-detailed and simplified but it should do the job) explanation what happens in EoE:

 

Q) What exactly happened in The End of Evangelion?

 

A) This is a severely abbreviated overview of The End of Evangelion that simply touches upon the important aspects and details of the finale:

 

SEELE, believing that mankind had become a colony of worthlessness decided that in order for mankind to be happy, all life needed to die ("God, man, and all life must die in order to become one" -SEELE). In the process, mankind would become one in a single, perfect, being. This is the Human Complement Project

 

Gendo had a different scenario for the Complementation of mankind and his process seems to have included the use of Rei, Adam, and Lillith while SEELE's focused on Eva-01 (direct clone of Lillith), Evangelion Mass Production Models and the Spear of Longinuss (at first intended for the original Spear, but the replicas would have sufficed).

 

The SEELE version of Human Complement Project appears to have been initiated with the death of Evangelion Unit-02 and the return of the original Spear with the arrival of Eva-01. With these events occurring in the GeoFront, Gendou gave Adam to Rei (Adam is imbedded in Gendou's hand- this is seen quit clearly in the re-vision of eps. 24) and instructs her to take him to Lillith. However "out of her own judgment" she refused and returned to Lillith alone - then putt the future of mankind into the hands of the son of Ikari, Shinji.

 

When given a choice at the end of Complement Project, if he wanted mankind to return to reality or to complete the project, Shinji decided that a life in reality, no matter how painful, is better than a fake happiness (Kaworu: "AT-Field will harm you and others again, are you sure?" Shinji: "That's fine.") The Mass Production Eva series falls still, their cores break as the Lance Replicas are destroyed.

 

As the souls of mankind flow back to earth, millions of glowing crosses ascend with Eva-01 and the Lance into the depths of space. Yui caresses Shinji's cheek as they they say their final good-byes. In a flashback, Yui's goal for Eva - as a testament that humanity existed even after the sun, moon and earth are gone - becomes clear.

 

Shinji awakes up on a desolate beach. Asuka - her arm and eye bandaged in a manner similar to Rei's - lies motionless next to him. Shinji, at the culmination of his love, hate, stress, frustration, etc. - begins to strangle her, only to stop when he feels the caress of her hand across his face. He breaks down, sobbing on top of her.

 

 

This explains EoE-25/26 thing quite nicely.

 

Finale aka End of Evangelion is awesome.

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I will never understand why the hell they had shiji

[Pidesco]

I believe it should be classified as "really really crappy anime".

[Xard]

Yeah, but IS it anime?

[Pidesco]

If you take the Japanese definition of anime, yes. :D